Why Cook More Food Than You Can Eat?

This is what we try to do with the major portions of our meals. It's easy to cook just enough Chicken Breast or Pork Chops for my family to eat in a given meal. It's tricky when you're cooking a bigger meal such as a roast or a full Turkey, so it's best to plan ahead for these meals. If you plan how to use the leftovers in advance I find it's more likely that you'll actually use them. Great post Denis.

 

I don't like having too many leftovers and fresh is best, but when I was working 14 hours a day, I would cook a batch of food and portion it in containers so I could reheat them easily.

I also cook more food than I need if something is about to go off and to prevent waste I cook it and then freeze it. I guess it's about your lifestyle and how you were brought up. Some people are content to throw food away and others will keep the smallest amount in a container

 

Nah, I just prefer to give my leftovers away to the dogs or cats or stack my leftovers in a nicely wrapped paper bag or something and put them near a trash bin or something, maybe some homeless guy will eat them or something and that way others can profit more from them, either animals or humans but you can't really make food much more efficiently than what is already being made I think, I can't imagine scraping an entire meal out of the leftovers from my lunch/dinner whatever. Maybe some people do cook inefficiently and throw out too much food but I don't do that usually so I don't know what to tell you.

 

We have a large family so I always make a ton of food. It works for us because we like leftovers. I have a daughter that works full time and she brings a lunch everyday so leftovers do the trick. My kids also take lunch each day so depending on what is left they may take that too. My husband works from home and so do I so leftovers are usually our choice!

It works for us but I am in no way a waster!! If I make it we try and eat the majority of it. I hate the thought of all that food going to waste. Very sad.

Danyel

 

I guess it really depends on the person.

So for me personally, I love leftovers. I like having more of my favorite dishes for the lunches the following days. Or I freeze some of them so I don't have to cook later in the month...I can just pull out the extras and reheat.

 

I try to cook only enough at a time for only one meal. We have very limited food storage space in a small refrigerator/freezer. What normally happens is I cook exactly enough for 1.5 meals. Then, the leftovers sit because they are not enough to fill me up alone, and I try to think of accompaniments to flesh them out into a meal. By the time I've figured something out, they are starting to seem a bit off. Then, I have to throw them out and wash the storage container out! So, please don't do what I do.

 

My husband always cooks more food then we eat because sometimes we have a lot of visitors that come over after he cooks. If we have any leftovers, he usually takes it to work with him and eat it for lunch in order to keep him from buying anything. A lot of people may say that cooking a lot of food is a waste if money but it really is not if you know the next day the leftovers will be eaten.

 

Have you tried planning in advance instead? So for example, if you want to make extra rice, know that you're going to use that extra bit the following day for fried rice or to go with a burrito instead.

You can also freeze leftovers. If it's in a small bowl (or put it in a ziploc bag instead), it won't take up much freezer space.

 

We actually do eat 99% of our leftovers...and utilize them in a lot of different ways, though often we'll plan it out while we make a meal, so it's not as much of a hassle. Plus sometimes we'll make a big batch of something and use some of it initially and freeze the rest- then we have a good, quick meal for another day.

 

I usually cook for myself or my roommate so we are careful to only cook for ourselves. If there are leftovers we will eat them for lunch. It's true that you can save money by buying and cooking in bulk but that's only if you cook in big batches and freeze. We just don't do that often. We prefer to save money by cooking meals together and eating them throughout the week. It gives us extra money to eat out for the next week.

 

I don't have a problem with leftovers. I really like cooking large amounts of food that will last a few days. I'm most responsible for myself so I really don't mind eating the same thing for a few days. It's also cheap.

 

It doesn't have to be wasteful! Whenever I have leftovers, I'll throw it in the fridge or even freeze it. Sometimes I'll fix a new dish up from yesterday's leftovers (or even last week's if I froze it). It's important to cook only what you can eat, but if you can store it anyway, you'll be able to eat all of those leftovers. Plus you'll save time on cooking if you do larger batches than you might eat in one sitting.

 

I have a hard time with getting bored with eating the same food for several days in a row, which is why I generally don't cook extra of anything unless it's something that generally takes hours to cook, like a roast beef or a pork roast. This is also a big problem for me when I slow cook stuff, because I will be totally in the mood for it when I put it in the pot, but by the time it's done, I don't want it at all and I'm craving something else, so it all just gets refrigerated.

As for food that is about to go bad, personally I would rather prep and freeze the items as is whenever possible instead of cooking them first then freezing them. I prefer stuff freshly cooked from frozen items, than pre-cooked, frozen and re-heated. If you at least chop and prep the raw ingredients, they will still save you some time.

 

I try to never have any left-overs. Most of the time I manage quite well, but there are times when I don't get around to preparing all the vegetables in the fridge, and consequently, they begin to rot and turn into compost material. So, I have started to only ever buy enough fresh food for 2-3 days, in order to have as minimal waste as possible. I hate throwing away food.

 

I usually cook more than just what I am going to eat for one meal because I plan on using the leftovers again either as it is or by transforming it into another dish. It's one of the oldest secret of cooks and it actually makes for more savings since you don't have to cook as frequently and you also get to save yourself some time and effort. The only ones who resort to wasting leftovers are the ones who don't plan well enough, but with enough research and practice, anyone can do it.

 

I really cook food more than I could eat to save time from cooking over and over. I don't get over fast the foods that I am eating. I am actually the type of person who would keep a food over and over until I got overused to it. The only problem now is sometimes, when I really liked the food that I cooked, I tend to overeat and finish all of those that I have cooked. It takes a great control to overcome this tendency of me overeating. It was really hard, but now, I have already gotten the hang of it. I am able to manage it now.

 

I tend to cook just for me and enough for me all the time but sometimes I tend to cook too much for my liking because of the ingredients. For example, I sometimes would cook pots and pots of spaghetti just because the tomato sauce and all the ingredients that I have is about to go out of date so instead of wasting them away why not make the last effort to at least make them useful.

Yes it might be a waste but only if you throw them away. If you really want to save up you'll have to man up and just eat all the leftovers until there's none left in your fridge. Or you can share some to your neighbors or invite friends over for dinner or snack.

 

I disagree with this thread. Leftovers are not a waste. I eat them for lunch the following day and that saves me from having to cook another meal.
I might not be able to feed my whole family with a small amount of leftovers, but there's usually enough left over for me to take to work for lunch.
Leftovers are only a waste if no one eats them.